"scurve", noun, = 'contemptible person', 1730; not in OED

[Joel S. Berson]

I did believe it wasn't just a nonce word, since I'd seen
UrbanDictionary.   Google Books didn't turn up anything for me
earlier than 1950 (I didn't probe later).

John, I assume the 1730 American instance qualifies for HDAS!?

Joel

At 9/9/2012 09:23 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>1925 _Adventure Magazine_ (Dec. 20) 16: Ain't they the scurves!
>
>1928 Leonard H. Nason _Sergeant Eadie_ 226 [ref. to 1918]: Ah, that scurve.
>He deserved a beating.
>
>1935 Nelson Algren _Somebody in Boots_ [rpt. N.Y.: Berkley, 1965]  95: That
>blonde scurve ain't young no more, Red.  Ibid. 168: That's the way with
>these cheap scurves every time.
>1976 Clark Whelton _CB Baby_ [N.Y.: Avon] 9: If...New York City was dying,
>it was because of people like those two scurvs [sic] in the Buick.
>
>2006 UrbanDictionary.com: _Scurve_ Word primarily used in Nebraska, short
>from the disease "scurvey", a dirty disease, used to describe one who
>rarely bathes, trailer trash, low income, goth-like, whining brats. Used to
>describe a teenager or young person who smokes, drinks, and is involved in
>other vices.
>
>The 1935 nuance is "slut."
>
>Why the gap between 1730 and 1925 I don't know. If I'd noticed an interim
>ex. I'd have jotted it down.
>
>JL
>
>
>On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 1:22 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      "scurve", noun, = 'contemptible person', 1730; not in OED
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "We have just published a Silly Rapsody of Puerilities,
> > Impertinencies and Scurrilities, by way of a Letter to Mr Boylston;
> > it is beneath any Answer, and serves only to expose a Scurve, this
> > Writer, and his Friend Mr. Boylston whom he Ridicules by Burlesquing
> > his assumed Title and celebrated Practice."
> >
> > Boston Gazette, 1730 March 16, 2/1.  EAN.
> >
> > "scurve", noun, = 'contemptible person', 1730; not in OED.  This is
> > "scurvy, adj.", sense 2.a., "Sorry, worthless, contemptible. Said
> > both of persons and things" (used by Swift and Smollet around this
> > time, and Shakespeare earlier but not originally), transformed into a noun.
> >
> > The "just published ... Silly Rapsody" is Samuel Mather's
> > anonymously-published "A Letter to Doctor Zabdiel Boylston,"
> > defending Boylston against William Douglass's attack in his
> > "Dissertation Concerning Inoculation".  Thus the "Scurve, this
> > Writer", unnamed by but likely known to the BG letter-writer, is Samuel
> > Mather.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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